Israel mice to detect bombs

In the future, the professional dog at the airport could be replaced by a much smaller animal.

Mice are more sensitive than dogs in finding dangerous chemicals.
(Photo: gigglenet.net)

Scientists are always looking for ways to reduce the size of machinery and equipment, but few think of shrinking the size of 'breathing' security tools such as dogs or pigs. An expert team of BioExplorers in Israel is training mice to replace mice with mice in search of explosives at the airport. They say the mouse detects more explosive chemicals than dogs and X-ray scanners, said Popular Science.

Of course, mice can not run around the airport to perform tasks like dogs. They will be housed in cages (or boxes) of equivalent size to security checkpoints at the airports. Each side of the cage has three compartments, each containing 8 mice. They work in shifts, each lasting 4 hours. During working hours the mouse just needs to smell the air around them.

Mice will be trained to detect explosive chemicals. When those chemical particles enter the nose, they will plunge into a separate chamber.

" If they detect explosives, the rats will run away as if they were cats ," explains Eran Lumbroso, lead researcher.

While running into the mouse pointer will trigger the alarm. The bell rings when at least two mice run into the compartment to minimize the risk of alarms.

Researchers tested mice in a supermarket in Tel Aviv, Israel last year. They asked 22 people to put fake explosives in their pantyhose and about 400 people in the supermarket. The results showed that the mice did not miss any of the cases.